Ag Year Wrap Up

There was a lot of talk this year about sage grouse Dustin Van Liew, Executive Director of PLC and NCBA Federal Lands, talks about the BLM's sage grouse management plans.

VAN LIEW: Time and again, industry has filed comments and pushed back against the administration and agencies on their idea to really manage those federal lands for one single use and that is for sage grouse. Unfortunately they did not listen to our concerns and there fore we filed protests against their final EIS's that we hope will lead to them making those changes.

Wildfires took a lot of land, homes and even cattle this year. Jack Field, Executive Vice-President for the Washington Cattlemen's Association says they are keeping in contact with producers.

FIELD: It's pretty tough to find anywhere in Washington State or anywhere in the west that isn't on fire or just adjacent to somebody that has been impacted and as a result we're in the process of hearing and talking to producers on a daily basis that have been directly impacted or appear to be eminently impacted.

This was also the year that avian influenza struck the northwest and took a toll on NW flocks. The strain of avian influenza, H5N2, was first detected in wild birds and backyard poultry in Oregon, Washington and Idaho in November 2014. The final tally nationwide was a staggering amount of birds that had to be destroyed and it even affected turkey prices for the Thanksgiving table.

And that's Washington Ag Today. I'm Greg Martin, thanks for listening on the Ag Information Network of the West.